A major goal in studying the growth and differentiation of higher eukaryotic cells is to describe in biochemical terms the pathways, enzymes, and cofactors that regulate progression through the cell cycle, and in particular through the transitions from G1 phase into S phase, and from G2 phase into M phase. Proteins, now known as cyclins, were described in fertilized sea urchin and clam eggs as members of a small number of proteins whose synthesis was greatly stimulated following fertilization (in the appended Citations: Evans et. al., 1983) and whose levels decreased at each mitosis. Cyclin A (Swenson et al., 1986) and cyclin B (Pines and Hunt, 1987), were discovered to periodically accumulate in mitotic cells, and thus a role in the mitotic process was considered possible (Evans et al., 1983) even though the biochemical basis was unclear. Results of genetic and biochemical analysis now support a role for certain cyclins in meiosis and mitosis. Microinjection of clam or sea urchin cyclin B1 mRNA into Xenopus oocytes (Pines and Hunt, 1987);Westendorf et al., 1989) is reportedly sufficient to drive the cell through meiosis I and II, and cyclin B may be the only protein whose synthesis is required for each mitotic cycle in early Xenopus embryos (Murray and Kirschner, 1989). Conversely, destruction of cyclin B1 and B2 mRNA may cause fertilized Xenopus eggs to arrest after DNA replication but before mitosis (Minshull et al., 1989). Besides Xenopus, in the yeasts S. pombe and S. cerevisae cyclin B reportedly plays a role in regulating transit through mitosis (Hagan et al., 1988; Ghiara et al., 1991; Surana et al., 1991; Booher and Beach, 1987; Booher et al., 1989; Hagan et al., 1988; Ghiara et al., 1991; Surana et al., 1991) by exerting mitotic control over activation of a p34 CDC2 protein kinase (reviewed in Nurse, 1990; Cross et al., 1989). In the latter case, CDC2 kinase is reportedly not catalytically active as a monomer, but following binding to the cyclin B and a series of phosphorylations and dephosphorylation steps, the kinase activity is generated (Simanis and Nurse, 1986; Draetta and Beach, 1988; Pondaven et al., 1990; Solomon et al., 1990; Gould and Nurse, 1989; Enoch and Nurse, 1990; Solomon et al., 1992).
Cyclin B-dependent activation of a p34 CDC2 kinase may also be necessary to initiate mitosis in certain somatic cells (Nurse, 1990; Cross, 1989; Mailer et al., 1991), but activation alone may not be the only event required (Lamb et al., 1990; Osmani et al., 1991; Amon et al., 1992; Sorger et al., 1992). S. cerevisiae apparently has a CDC2 homologue termed CDC28. The CDC2 and CDC28 gene products appear to be structurally similar (Lorincz & Reed, 1984; Hindley & Phear, 1984) and functionally homologous (Beach et al., 1982; Booher & Beach 1987). They encode a serine/threonine protein kinase that is the homolog of the 34 kDa protein kinase in vertebrate and invertebrate mitosis promoting factor (MPF; Lee & Nurse, 1987; Arion et al., 1988; Dunphy et al., 1988; Gautier et al., 1988; Labbe et al., 1988). CDC28 may require different cyclins for the cell cycle transitions at G2/M and at G1/S: namely, at G2/M CDC28 reportedly binds to and is activated by B-type cyclins (Ghiara et al., 1991; Surana et al., 1991), while at G1/S CDC28 is reportedly activated by CLN-type cyclins, (i.e., CLN1, CLN2 and CLN3; Sudbery et al., 1980; Nash et al., 1988; Cross, 1988, 1990; Hadwiger et al., 1989; Richardson et al., 1989; Wittenberg et al., 1990).
CLN1 and CLN2 cyclins are periodically expressed during the cell cycle, peaking in abundance at the G1/S transition point (Wittenberg et al., 1990; Cross and Tinkelenberg, 1991) and accumulation of the CLN proteins in yeast cells may be rate limiting for the transition from G1 into S phase of the cell cycle.
For the purposes of the present disclosure, the term "CDC protein kinase" is used synonymously with the recently adopted "cell division kinase (CDK)" nomenclature.
The p34 CDC2 kinase activity apparently oscillates during the cell cycle (Mendenhall et al., 1987; Draetta & Beach, 1988; Labbe et al., 1989; Moreno et al., 1989; Pines & Hunter, 1990), and this oscillation of activity is not attributable to variations in the amount of the CDC2 gene product present in cells (Durkacz et al., 1986; Simanis & Nurse, 1986; Draetta & Beach, 1988). Rather, CDC2 kinase activity appears to be influenced by interactions of the kinase with other proteins, including (as discussed above) the cyclins (Rosenthal et al, 1980; Evans et al., 1983; Swenson et al., 1986; Draetta et al., 1989; Meijer et al., 1989; Minshull et al., 1989; Murray & Kirschner, 1989; Labbe et al., 1989; Soloman et al., 1990; Gautier et al., 1990; reviewed in Murray & Kirschner, 1989; Hunt, 1989). Apparently an association between a p34 CDC2 protein and a B-type cyclin is necessary for the activation of the p34 kinase at the onset of mitosis in a wide variety of organisms including yeast (Booher & Beach, 1987; Hagan et al., 1988; Moreno et al., 1989; Soloman et al., 1988; Booher et al., 1989; Surana et al., 1991; Ghiara et al., 1991) and humans (Draetta & Beach, 1988; Pines & Hunter, 1989; Riabowol et al., 1989).
In budding yeasts a major control decision point in cell proliferation reportedly occurs during G1, i.e., at a point termed START, where entry of cells into S phase is restricted until certain conditions have been satisfied (Hartwell, 1974). The START transition appears to require a CDC28 or cdc2 gene product (Hartwell et al., 1973, 1974; Nurse & Bisset, 1981), but the biochemical pathways that activate CDC28 at START are not completely understood. The latter pathways may involve the CLN1, CLN2 and CLN3 cyclins and activation of CDC28 because cells deficient in all three CLN proteins arrest at START; and although they continue to grow they are unable to enter S phase (Sudbery et al., 1980; Nash et al., 1988; Cross, 1988, 1990; Hadwiger et al., 1989; Richardson et al., 1989; Wittenberg et al., 1990). CLN2, and probably CLN1 and CLN3, may form complexes with CDC28 kinase prior to or at START (Wittenberg et al., 1990). The CLN1 and CLN2 oscillates during the cell cycle, but maximal levels are reportedly observed in late G1 (i.e., rather than late G2; Wittenberg et al., 1990).
Little is currently known about the biochemical pathways that control the start of DNA synthesis in higher eukaryotic cells or the extent to which these pathways resemble those in yeast. However, in human cells (as in budding yeast) the predominant mode of control of cell proliferation appears to occur during the G1 phase of the cell cycle (Zetterberg & Larson, 1985; Zetterberg, 1990). The kinetics of passage through G1 in mammalian cells suggest a single decision point, termed the "restriction", that regulates commitment of a cell to initiate DNA synthesis (Pardee, 1974). Prior to the restriction point, progress through G1 is sensitive to the growth state of the cell (e.g., reducing the rate of protein synthesis or removing a growth factor apparently may delay entry into S phase and can even cause cell cycle arrest), however, after the restriction point the cell cycle becomes substantially less responsive to these signals (reviewed in Pardee, 1989). Unlike yeasts, CDC2 cyclin appears to be diversified into a small protein family in mammalian cells (Paris et al, 1991; Elledge and Spotswood, 1991; Tsai etal., 1991; Koff etal., 1991) and CDC2/28 activities may also be split among several different kinase family members (Fang and Newport, 1991). Certain cyclins may have roles in G1 regulation in higher eukaryotes similar to those reported in yeast. For example, cyclin A synthesis reportedly begins late in G1 and it may activate both p34 CDC2 and certain related p33 CDK2 kinases (Giordano et al., 1989; Pines and Hunter, 1990; Marraccino et al., 1992; Tsai et al., 1991). Inhibition of cyclin A function may also reportedly block a START-like function of S phase in certain cells (Girard et al., 1991) and cyclin A reportedly is able to associate with certain transforming and growth suppressing factors (Hunter and Pines, 1991). However, despite these apparent results supporting a role for cyclin A in regulating a START-like function in higher eukaryotes, there are also some reasons to doubt that cyclin A is functionally homologous with budding yeast CLN proteins. Several laboratories have recently identified two novel cyclins in mammalian cells that are not present in yeasts, i.e., cyclin C and cyclin D. The cyclin D gene was reported as a gene induced by CSF-1 in murine macrophages in late G1 (Matshushime et al., 1991) and the gene may have a chromosomal location at a breakpoint subject to possible rearrangement in human parathyroid tumor (Motokura et al., 1991). Cyclin C, as well as cyclin D, have also been reportedly identified in human and Drosophila cDNA libraries by screening for genes capable of complementing mutations in S. cerevisae CLN genes (Laheu et al,. 1991; Lew et al., 1991; Leopold and O'Farrell, 1991; Xiong et al., 1991). While the results are consistent with G1 functions for cyclin C and cyclin D, cyclin B (a mitotic cyclin) was also found to be capable of rescuing the latter S. cerevisae CLN mutants, indicating that yeast complementation assays may not necessarily identify cyclins that perform similar functions in higher eukaryotic cells.
The similarities between the restriction point in mammalian cells and START in yeast has suggested a possible role for a p34 CDC2 kinase. In support of this hypothesis, a human CDC2 gene has been found that may be able to substitute for the activity of an S. pombe cdc2 gene in both its G1/S and G2/M roles (Lee & Nurse, 1987). Also, cell fusion experiments offer circumstantial evidence in support of the hypothesis (Rao & Johnson, 1970) since a diffusible trans-acting factor is reportedly involved in activation of DNA synthesis when S phase cells were fused to G1 cells. However, the relationship between the latter S phase activator and the p34 CDC2 kinase remains unclear. Recently cyclin-CDC2 complexes have reportedly been isolated from human S phase cells and shown to be active in inducing SV40-DNA replication when they were added to extracts of G1 cells (D'Urso et al., 1990). Antisense oligonucleotides directed against the human CDC2 mRNA are reportedly inhibitory for human PHA-activated T cells at entry to S phase (Furakawa et al., 1990). In other higher eukaryotic cells it has been reported that depletion of CDC2 protein from Xenopzis extracts can block DNA replication (Blow & Nurse, 1990). Despite recent suggestive reports, the pathway that activates p34 kinase during the G1 phase of the human cell cycle is not currently understood.
By analogy with the CLN-dependent activation of CDC28 at START in yeast, it is possible that specific G1 cyclins may play a role in regulating the human p34 kinase during the G1 to S phase transition. To test this idea experiments were conducted herein to determine whether human cells contain specific cyclins that can replace the yeast S. cerevisae CLN proteins. This assay identified a new human cyclin, cyclin E.